Thursday was graduation day for Cathy Watkins. She received a bachelor's degree in sociology from Marymount Manhattan College.
Ms. Watkins did so well in her courses that she was named the class speaker. She set her speech on the lectern and put on her reading glasses. At 41 -- a grandmother of three, no less -- she was not the standard age for a graduate.
Much of what she said would sound familiar to anyone who ever sat through a commencement ceremony. "One person can make a difference," she told her fellow students. "Let that difference start with you." Afterward, she joined her classmates and visiting relatives for lunch.
And then Ms. Watkins returned to her normal life, locked up behind the walls and concertina wire of the maximum-security state prison for women in this Westchester suburb of New York City.
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